In very ancient times there lived a khan. He had three sons: Asan, Usen and the youngest - Hasan. Hassan was handsome, smart and also a hero. One day the khan saw a wonderful bird in a dream. When the bird laughed, flowers fell from its mouth, and when it cried, pearl beads fell from its eyes. Khan decided to get this bird. He called Asan and Usen to him.
— In a dream I saw a wonderful bird. When she laughs, flowers come out of her mouth when she
cries, pearl beads fall from her eyes. Find it and deliver it to me, if you don’t find it, I’ll order you to cut off your heads! - he commanded his sons.
Asan and Usen were afraid of their father's threat.
“We will find her at any cost and bring her to you,” they said and set off.
Hassan knew nothing about this. Only forty days later did he learn that Asan and Usen had gone in search of the wonderful bird. Saddened that his brothers went on such a dangerous journey, and he stayed at home, Hassan came to his father in tears and said:
“Father, why wasn’t I sent along with Asan and Usen, or do you not trust me?”
- No, my son. I sent Asan and Usen on a very dangerous and difficult task, and you are still too young for such an assignment.
Hassan began to beg his father to let him go in search of the wonderful bird. The father agreed, and Hasan followed his brothers. Hasan caught up with the brothers who had left for forty days
before him, and the three of them continued their journey along the high road.
The brothers arrived at a fork in three roads. One road went to the right, another to the left, and the third went straight. At each road there were three stones with inscriptions. On a stone near the first road was carved: “When he goes, he comes back.” On the second: “If he goes, he may return, or he may not return.” And on the third stone is carved: “If he goes, he won’t return.” Asan decided to take the road “When he goes, he comes back.” Usen - “May or may not return.” Hassan got the “If he goes, he doesn’t come back” route.
And the brothers left.
Hassan has been traveling for several months and several days - a big city appeared ahead. There were many gazelles grazing around the city. Hassan had long ago run out of food, and he was traveling hungry. He decided to shoot one gazelle. He took the bow from his shoulder and just pulled the string, when the gazelles came running, surrounded him and began to cry pitifully. Hasan was surprised: “How intelligent they are!” — lowered his bow and headed into the city. He drove up to a large palace, entered it and shouted: “Hey, who’s here?” Nobody responded. He looked around and saw a large golden dish filled with fried meat. Hungry to the point of exhaustion, Hasan extended his hand to the dish. Suddenly a commanding voice rang out: “Hey, man, take your hand away!” Then a scary old woman with buck teeth appeared, all in rags, muttered something under her breath and stamped her foot on the floor. Hassan turned into a gazelle. The old woman grabbed Hassan by the neck, took him away and let him go to the herd.
Hassan lost his human appearance, but did not lose his mind. He separated from the other gazelles and headed along the road by which he had come here. Several days passed and he saw a large, beautiful palace. Hasan Gazelle entered the palace. A beautiful girl came out to meet him and, peering at the gazelle, said: “You are not a gazelle, but a man. If I turn you back into a human, will you marry me?” Hassan-ghazal did not answer. “My sorceress mother turned you into a gazelle. She has taken away your power of speech!” The girl grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at the gazelle’s face. The gazelle turned into a horseman. When the horseman regained his ability to speak, he politely bowed to the girl and thanked
her and told everything that happened to him. The girl also told Hassan everything that happened to her.
“I am the only daughter of that same Zhalmauyz-Kempir who turned you into a gazelle,” she said. “It was hard for me to see how my mother mocked people, turning them into animals, took her dowry and thought that I would never see a person again, and then Allah himself sent you to me.” Now I won't leave you alone.
“I cannot marry you, I must fulfill the promise I made to my father,” Hassan answered.
-What promise did you make to your father?
Hasan told how his father saw a wonderful bird in a dream and ordered him to find it.
The girl listened to Hassan’s words and began to cry.
“If you continue to look for this bird, then I will lose you,” she said. “This bird belonged to me and could speak human language.” The daughter of the Dyau king named Kulzhakhmal came with an army and took her away from me. You, of course, will find the camp of those birds, but it will not be easy for you to get a bird,
- I am ready for any hardship. I must find the bird at all costs and deliver it to my father. If I get the bird and return safe and sound, I’ll come and marry you,” Hassan promised. The girl stopped crying and showed Hassan the way.
“You must travel west for ninety days.” After this you will come across a mountain. You will also pass through it in ninety days. On the other side of the mountain at the foot there is a single large tree. There is a samruk’s nest on that tree, maybe the bird will take you to the dyau camp,” the girl admonished. “And while my mother is alive, she will not let us live in peace, she will do some evil.” Her death depends on this.” The girl handed Hassan an arrow. “If you shoot it in any direction, it will still hit my mother’s forehead.”
Hasan did not hesitate to take the arrow and release it from the bow. The arrow hit Zhalmauyz-Kempir directly in the forehead, and she immediately gave up the ghost.
Hasan said goodbye to the girl and went west. Ninety days passed, and he reached high mountains, the peaks of which reached into the sky. With great difficulty I crossed
drove through the mountains, then reached a large lonely tree and sat down to rest in its shade. “Hey man, save us, save us!” — he suddenly heard the squeaky voices of Samruk chicks. “What happened to the poor things?” - Hassan thought and rushed towards them. A huge boa constrictor crawled up a tree trunk, intending to swallow the chicks. Hassan pulled out his sword and chopped the boa constrictor into pieces. The rescued chicks warmly thanked their deliverer. They were hungry and instantly swallowed pieces of the boa constrictor's body. Suddenly a strong wind rose and it began to rain.
- Where does the wind come from, where does the rain come from? - Hasan asked the chicks.
“It’s not the wind, it’s our mother flying.” The wind is from her wings, and the rain is her tears. Our mother raised her chicks on this tree every year. When the mother flew off to get food for the chicks, the boa constrictor that you killed now crawled out of its hole, swallowed the hatched chicks and hid in its hole. And now our mother returns from hunting and thinks that she will not see us alive. Mother loves human meat very much. It can swallow you, hide under our wings.
Hassan hid. A little time passed, and the samruk sank heavily onto the tree. Due to the weight of the samruk, the tree bent and reached the ground. The mother brought deer, gazelles and many other animals and put them in a large pile. Seeing that her chicks were alive and unharmed, the bird stopped crying. The wind died down and the sun began to shine. Samruk, swallowing saliva, began to look around.
- I smell a man, have you seen him? - she asked the chicks.
“If you don’t touch us, we will show the person,” they answered. Samruk nodded her head in agreement. When the chicks released Hassan from under the wings, the bird picked him up and wanted to swallow him. But the chicks squealed and latched onto her throat. Samruk released Hassan.
- Why do you feel sorry for him? What good did this person do to you? - asked the mother.
“He killed the boa constrictor and saved us from death,” the chicks squealed.
Samruk thanked Hassan, asked why he came here and how she could help him. Hasan without
Utaiki told everything and asked to be taken to the Dyau camp. Samruk agreed. She put Hassan on her back and flew to the Dyau camp.
They flew for seven days and seven nights. They flew across the ocean, the desert, and when they flew up to a large fiery river, Samruk became dizzy from hunger, her eyes became blurred, and the bird did not know what to do.
- Hey, man, I’m afraid that we won’t reach the place, my strength is leaving me, I’ll fall soon! - she turned to Hassan.
Hassan, without thinking, cut two pieces of meat from his thighs and handed them to the bird. Samruk swallowed the meat and flew on.
-Where does this meat come from? It is very tasty and gives great strength! - said the bird.
“I cut these pieces out of my thighs,” Hasan answered. Samruk quickly ran her wings over Hassan’s wounds, and they healed instantly.
A little time passed and they flew to the lands of Dyau.
“When the Dyau go to bed, they fall asleep for forty days. They've been sleeping for three days now. I will wait for you here for three more days. If you don’t return by this time, I won’t wait any longer and will fly away,” Samruk told him.
Hassan promised to return in three days and headed to the city.
The city of Dyau was very beautiful: everything here was built of gold. Hassan, who had never seen such a wonderful city before, forgot about the wonderful bird, about samruk and began to look around all the streets. Walking from street to street, he came to a beautiful palace and entered it. Forty girls slept in the palace, and further away from them in one room another girl slept on a golden bed. He walked forward, crossed the threshold of this room and saw a variety of food on the tablecloth. He extended his hand to the food, but someone squealed shrilly.
- Hey, man, why are you taking someone else’s food without permission? - he heard a voice. Hassan looked around and saw a bird in a cage. Having said these words, the bird burst out laughing. Flowers fell from her mouth. This was the same bird that Hassan was looking for. His joy knew no bounds. Hasan decided to take the bird and just extended his hand to the cage when the bird screeched again.
“You won’t take me away,” said the bird, “if I sing in a loud voice, all the sleeping people in this city will wake up.” And one gram of your meat here costs a thousand dill.
Hassan began to pray to the bird in tears. He spoke about his torment in Nuti, about his agreement to marry her former owner. The bird took pity on Hassan.
“Okay,” she squeaked, “you can take me.” Just write a note about your adventures along the way and put it in the pocket of the girl sleeping on the golden bed.
Hasan did everything the bird said. Then he took the cage and returned to Samruk. Samruk was already preparing to fly away. The zhigit with the cage sat on the back of a huge bird, and without much difficulty they flew into the samru-ka’s nest. To fly further, Samruk gave Hasan one of her feathers. It was a magic feather. Hasan and the bird sat on the feather of the samruk and flew to the girl. There was no limit to her joy. They rested there for several days, and Hassan, with the girl and the bird, sat on the feather of the samruk and flew to their homeland.
They fly for several days and see a man walking along the road. Hassan is looking, and this is his middle brother Usen. On the way, he ran out of food, and he hired himself out as a shepherd to a bayou. Usen had lived a meager life and was now making his way to his homeland on foot. He was thin and in dirty rags.
Hassan dressed his brother in new clothes, fed him well, put him on a feather, and they flew on.
On the way they met Asan, who was more exhausted than Usen. His neck was like a stick; his rags could barely hold on. Hasan also fed him, like Usen, changed his clothes and put him on the pen of samruk.
One day they stopped for the night. Hasan fell asleep in a heroic sleep, and Asan and Usen began to secretly confer:
“Our father loved Hassan more before this, and now he will love him at all. And if he finds out that we were hired as shepherds, he will be offended and order us to be hanged,” the brothers reasoned. “We need to kill Hassan, and we will say that we ourselves found the bird.”
They came to Hassan.
- Get us some water from the well.
Hasan obeyed, tied a rope to his belt and descended into the deep well. When Hasan reached the middle of the well, Asan and Usen cut the rope. After that, they almost fought over the girl: each of them wanted to take her for himself. The girl did not marry anyone and ran away into the steppe. Asan and Usen and the bird returned to their native village. They bowed to their father and reported that they had brought a wonderful bird.
- Where is Hassan? - asked their father.
“Hasan did not listen to us and when he was swimming in the sea, he was swallowed by a shark,” they answered. “But we avenged Hassan - we killed this shark.”
At this time the dyau woke up. Khan Dyau's daughter found out that her bird in the cage had disappeared, and raised the alarm throughout the city. From a note left in her pocket, she learned that a man had taken the bird. She gathered her army and flew in search of her favorite.
One day Hassan's father wanted to listen to the singing of a bird. The bird was put in a golden cage and forced to sing. She began to sing in a drawn-out, plaintive voice. The warriors of the daughter of Khan Dyau heard the singing of a bird, flew into the village of Hassan and, turning into people, landed straight on the village. The inhabitants of the village saw that people were falling from the sky, they got scared and began to hide with their khan.
The khan's daughter Dyau came to the place where the bird was sitting and called the khan to her. The khan put on his belt, prayed to Allah and came to the khan’s daughter Dyau.
- Hey, Khan of the people? - the girl turned to him. - Which son of yours brought this bird, show him to me. I will talk to him.
- O daughter of the dyau! I saw this bird of yours in a dream, I wanted to look at it at least once. Of the three sons who went in search of this bird, two returned. They reported that my youngest and favorite was swallowed by a shark somewhere along the way. Due to great grief, I got sick and only now am I seeing this bird for the first time. Ask the rest from those sons who returned alive.
Dyau's daughter called Asan and Usen.
“Tell me how you brought the bird,” she turned to them.
- Oh, what’s special here, we rode on horses and brought it back! - the brothers answered.
“If you’re lying, I’ll force the bird to tell you everything, and if you lied, then I’ll order you to cut off your heads right now!” - the daughter of Khan Dyau threatened.
The bird told everything.
— Hassan was a generous and modest zhigit. He asked me in tears, and I agreed to go with him myself. Hassan came with me to my former owner. When we headed here, on the way we met Asan and Usen, who were hungry and completely dejected. Hassan fed them, and they committed a crime against him, deceived him and left him in the well. After that they argued over my former owner. Each of them wanted to marry her, but she ran away from them into the steppe. They must still be alive,” said the bird.
Dyau's daughter had a fast warrior. He could fly around the world in an hour. She called this warrior and sent him to search for Hassan, and cut off the heads of Asan and Usen. Khan did not resist her will. When Asan and Usen were beheaded, a fast dyau delivered Hassan and the girl.
Khan Dyau's daughter was pleased with Hassan's courage and humanity and gave the bird to his father with her own hands. The khan thanked the khan's daughter for a dyau and arranged for her to stay for forty days, where people and the dyau feasted.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru